Kazakhstan president apologies after winning polls with 97.7% vote share

Ever won by a margin so huge that you feel embarrassed and in need to apologise?

Something similar happened with Nursultan Nazarbayev, who won the elections for Kazakhstan’s presidential position with an overwhelming 97.7 percent vote share with a voter turnout of 95.22 percent, reports The Independent .

“I apologise that for super-democratic states such figures are unacceptable. But I could do nothing. If I had interfered, I would have looked undemocratic, right?” he said in a statement on Monday.

Nazarbayev, 74, has led the country ever since the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

But international monitors have criticised his victory on the grounds of lack of a credible opposition. Opposition politicians have been prosecuted and free media shut down under his rule seemingly never-ending rule since 1989,  reports The Telegraph .

Although, Presidents of Russia and China have been quick to congratulate Nazarbayev.

Kazakhstan remains stable in the region, especially compared to neighboring Kyrgyzstan, which is plagued by ethnic violence, and is a huge energy-rich state, the largest economy in the former Soviet Union after Russia.